This Isn't a Love Story And You're No Romeo
by nicnac918
Summary: Lex pontificates on classic literature. Clark runs interference. Clex


AN: The correctly formatted title is: This Isn't a Love Story (And You're No Romeo)

* * *

This isn't a love story, and you most definitely are not Romeo. Granted, there are some similarities to Shakespeare's classic, two diametrically opposed families, an unexpected relationship between the younger generation, and a forbidden love. But Juliet is a guy, the pointless feud actually has some good reasons justifying it, and your forbidden love is completely one-sided. So really, that comparison was dead before it started.

It's just as well; you can't stand Romeo. You do respect him a little, because you have to respect the rebellion inherent in marrying the one girl that your parents were going to disapprove of the most, though one evening of knowing each other is a bit quick even by your standards - it took Desiree two weeks and she was drugging you - and the two of you do have something in common, you being the relative age and experience to Clark's youth and innocence. But after that opening moment of brilliance he systematically ruins everything.

What was he planning on doing after he married Juliet anyway, keeping it a secret forever? If the two of them had just presented the whole thing as _a fait accompli _to their families there wouldn't have been much either the Capulets or the Montagues could have done about it. If it were you, then, while you wouldn't be shouting it from the rooftops exactly - sixteen may be the age of consent, but Kansas still has those pesky sodomy laws and you would like to think you had left the "getting arrested for sexual deviancy" portion of your life behind you - you wouldn't keep it a total secret either. Clark would be _yours_, and you would have no problems with making sure that everyone who needed to know that did.

Of course you would never be so dumb as to kill one of Clark's cousins right after winning Clark over. Though Clark didn't have any cousins... one of his friends then. There was no excuse really.

If Clark ever died... well, you could certainly sympathize with Romeo feeling like he wanted to kill himself, but you wouldn't actually do it. Killing yourself for someone doesn't have anywhere near the power behind it that living for them does. Forcing yourself to go through each day in total despair, yet trying to be happy and doing things that would make make Clark happy, make him proud of you, that says more about the power of love than a thousand deaths could.

And if you did kill yourself you'd at least make certain Clark was really dead first.

"Hey Lex." And there he is. A gorgeous body that a Greek god would kill for, a smile that you could swear literally makes the room brighter, a heart and inherent goodness that would put any saint to shame, and eyes that look at you like you, exactly as you are, are just who he was looking for. The not-Juliet to your not-Romeo, because this isn't a love story and you are never going to have him."Whatcha thinking about?"

"Romeo was a moron." The answer slips out before you can stop it; you didn't mean to say it and you really shouldn't have.

"Like _Romeo and Juliet_? I didn't think he was a moron," says Clark.

"English class?" you ask.

"English class."

"Trust me Clark, he's a moron. He kills himself for a girl he probably doesn't even love, given the way he moons over Rosaline in the beginning and then completely forgets about her as soon as Juliet shows up." Romeo's fickleness bothers you too.

"That doesn't mean he doesn't love Juliet, just that he didn't love Rosaline," Clark argues. "Maybe he just thought he loved her and then, when he met Juliet, he realized that he had never actually loved Rosaline because he didn't understand what love really was before that moment." Clark sounds so earnest about it, you can't help but wonder if there was someone else Clark had been interested in before, only to have that feeling pale upon discovering Lana.

"They still kill themselves," you point out.

"It's supposed to be romantic; they can't live without each other. I think you're just being a cynic," accuses Clark with a smile.

"I am not cynic," you retort and you're at least halfway to lying through your teeth on that one. "And Romeo and Juliet is not romantic, it's maudlin."

"You are _such _a cynic," Clark says, and he's literally shaking his head at you. "I bet you don't think fairy tales are romantic either."

"Have you ever actually read the original version of those fairy tales? Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid is gruesome."

"Not the original versions," Clark corrects, rolling his eyes. "The revamped, family friendly ones that parents read to their kids at bedtime."

"I don't know, Clark. Think about it. Cinderella dances with the prince for one evening and suddenly she's ready to marry him? And The Little Mermaid is the same, but worse. Because she doesn't even get to talk to the guy before she gives up her family and her throne and her old world just for a chance to possibly win him over. Seems more stupid than romantic."

"I think being stupid is part of being romantic," Clark says. "Besides, don't you believe in love at first sight?"

You picture Clark, soaking wet, hovering over you on that riverbank and falter for a second, but eventually reply, "No I don't. Love is about knowing everything about the other person and accepting them for everything they are and everything they aren't."

"Do you really think you have to know everything about someone before you can love them? Can't you just, I don't know, trust that they are the person that they say they are, even if you don't know all their secrets?" He looks at you so beseechingly that your heart catches in your throat for half a second before you realize he's probably looking for advice about Lana.

You fix a friendly, encouraging sort of smile on your face. "I suppose there's always room for new discovery. You can love a person for what you do know about them and trust the things they aren't sharing won't change that. But if it's a really big secret, you still need to tell the other person eventually. She deserves to know and you deserve someone who loves you for all of you, not just the pieces you're willing to show."

Clark searches your face for something, sincerity maybe. Whatever it is, he seems to find it, because he nods and then beams up at you like the sun coming out. You tell the warmth in your chest to shut up. This is _not _a love story. "Thanks, Lex," Clark says. Then, grinning mischievously, "But I still don't forgive you for trashing fairy tales and trying to ruin my childhood memories."

Light, teasing. This you can handle. "I have not yet begun to ruin your childhood, Clark. Did you know that in the original Sleeping Beauty-"

"If you don't stop, I'll make you stop," Clark threatens, his smile turning it into the best kind of challenge.

"- the Prince doesn't actually kiss the princess. Instead-"

Clark kisses you. As a technique for shutting you up goes, it's a pretty good one, because once the shock wears off enough that you theoretically could keep talking, you're far too concerned with kissing Clark back and touching as much of him as possible to say anything.

So maybe this is a love story. (But you're still not Romeo.)


End file.
